That photo is already out of date!

Yes, the photo below of the tractors is out of date.  Mike and Aman decided to upgrade the fleet and are giving Baby (the little 4WD tractor) a new home.  It and the big Magnum are being replaced with The Beast

a Case 275 Magnum.

It has RTX autosteer, so if you see Mike reading the newspaper going down through the field, don't be surprised.  Sorry, no television ... yet.

Oh, and keep your eyes open for changes in the web site.  We are in the process of making some major changes in the farm web site.  Mike has been talking about this for a long time, and finally found someone to help him along.  Lance Otto is a Minnesota farmer who also does web design.  He and Mike are working on a new site, but development may get paused if farming season gets here early.  The new site is temporarily at www.BumpusFarms.info if you want to visit from time to time and see what is happening.

Just keep in mind it is a work in progress.  It may not work properly and things WILL be changed.  But once it is up and going we hope to have secure pages for landowners to access data, have a photo gallery, who knows? There are LOTS of possibilities. Once it is up and going we will probably switch www.BumpusFarms.us to it as well.

A few random photos

Here are a few photos from the last couple weeks.  Yes, the weather has been a bit varied.

 

Slowly but slowly we are making progress

We started the insulating the shop project back in November. (I mentioned it in a post on December 9)  I don't know why, but it has been a lousy year for getting that one project finished.  Well, that isn't entirely true, I do know part of why.

For instance, you start out insulating a shed that has 30 years of accumulation. You move everything out from the wall, insulate it, and then go "Do I really want that back there?"  No, so you move stuff out from the other wall and insulate it. Then .... well, you get the picture.

Plus we start with one idea: insulate the shed. But then you decide the windows need replaced with better windows

The you look at the door and replace it.

Then you decide we need a stairway to the loft

The you go "OSHA and the Fire Marshal would probably want  exit door on the other side of the shed."  Plus it would be really handy.  And a window as well.

 One good thing we did was borrow John's scissor lift.

BOY was that a good idea! 

 And meetings and weddings and funerals and holidays and ... just life. I think one more day and we will reach a stopping point for this season even if we are not finished.

You see some of the silliest things

I commented on my personal blog recently about some of the dumb stuff a particular gas station did. Like piling truck tires in the driveway so you had to drive around them

Driving around this winter I keep seeing odd stuff.  Some is amusing, some heart breaking.  We were setting at a stop light Friday when I noticed the car in front of us.  Apparently they had trouble with the trunk release

it may not show here.  The key lock on the trunk door has a piece of metal pop-riveted over it.  A piece about the size an arm would need to unlatch it.

I didn't get a picture of it, but we followed an '80's Chevy Impala up 13th street in Terre Haute with the back end jacked up so high the bumper was at our eye level in the Honda.

I have been noticing some odd installations in Men's Rooms the last few months.  For instance this

Why they would plumb it that way ... had to be a farmer just using what he had on hand.

 Anyway, I thought I needed to update with SOMETHING.  To see what I have been doing visit my personal blog at http://walnutprairie.blogspot.com

Well, my streak may have run out

We've been doing some trading around on the farm.  I took Steve to get his truck out of the shop in Terre Haute one day and in the process got talking with the sales manager.  He asked if I was looking for something?

I told him I was too cheap.

"How cheap?"

"Really cheap."

"Come look at this..."

"This" was his personal truck.  He has a son in college and is needing money more than 8 vehicles (I can understand that). '01 Dodge 1500 extended cab 4WD fancy wheels, toolbox, Reese hitch.  Kind of like this but actually better looking:

It was even red.

He said a price.  I made an offer.  He said OK.

Great, how do I explain this at home?

On the way home I got to thinking about it.  Aman's truck is showing it's age, we have a Jeep we don't us nearly as much as I anticipated, 

 

and we have a flatbed we rarely use since got the F550. 

I offered to trade Aman straight up, then we'd sell it and the other 2 and I should come out even.

He thought on it for about 2 seconds.  Kind of like when I traded Jim the Toyota truck for the old Camaro ... REALLY? SERIOUSLY?

He listed his truck, sold it rather quickly.  I mentioned on Facebook I was going to sell the Jeep.  That was about 8 AM.  By noon I had a check in my hand.

I was talking to Ralph at the welding shop.  He had a tag axle for a truck he'd been trying to sell with no success.  I suggested he let me list it on the AgTalk+ Classifieds for him.  I listed it about 11:00 one night

A bit after 8 the next day he called to say it had been sold ... to a guy in Virginia.

We have some stuff I'm tired of walking over and around, like the planter closing wheels and stuff on the pallet I bought a couple years ago.

I listed them on AT+ late Thursday night.  By 11 the next day they were all spoken for

I listed the flat bed last night.

Also listed the KW.

 It's a good truck, too good a combination to break up.

No calls yet

I'm not getting accomplished nearly what I think I should this winter.

Spring has sprung, Fall has fell, Winter's here and .... I'm not getting accomplished nearly what I think I should this winter.  I thought I had shaken off the bug everyone seems to be passing around.  I didn't have near the symptoms folks keep talking about.  I felt "blah" for a day but didn't get sick, never ran a high fever, just "blah"

But I've been fighting nasal congestion for too long.  And while I can do anything, I seem to wear out quickly.  And my get up and go has got up and gone. And what productive time I have had has been in the office.

When I was in high school we had to take a military aptitude test.  My results came back and I met with the recruiter.  He said "Son, you can be anything you want except a clerk." Maybe I should have joined up, because that would almost have guaranteed a desk job someplace. Yes, my pessimistic side shows through at times.

We did get some real work done.  The road commissioner let us on the posted roads so we emptied the corn bin at Mom's. I had a couple things I HAD to do, so  Aman  started on one at Gramp's but  we got bottlenecked at the elevator.

Then the USDA report came out. And the weather hit.  I have a semi load of corn int he shed waiting to be unloaded worth $500 less than it was when we loaded it.  Some days you just LOVE farming.

So this week I've done exciting things like renew my farm radio license, get the title and license transferred on the new trailer, straighten out some insurance stuff, get information ready for the accountant so we can get W-2's and 1099's out, study for then not go to First Responder class...  Not that I skipped it. Tuesday the instructor was called away,Thursday I went to Robinson to the Driver's License Office and accountant's then hung around town and ate supper at McD's until class time.  About 20 minutes before class I got a text class was cancelled due to weather.  So I drove home.  It was just blowing snow.  Nothing too exciting.

I also listed the Maurer trailer and the Chevy 10 wheeler on a couple free classified for farmers as well as Craig's List.

 I have gotten one bite on the trailer and 2 on the truck.  A truck call was from central Iowa, the other was online from a guy in Nebraska.  We discussed my truck and one he was looking at a neighbor widow lady offered him.  It wasn't quite as big as mine, but she had offered it to him for about half market price and the tires were all new. He told her that wasn't enough money and she told him he had been helping her and wouldn't take any pay and it was a fair price.  I told him to buy the neighbor's truck.

In preparation for the pulpit search I have updated the church web site. The I revised the update.  And then added some things and took off some things.  I put our search on 3 different college boards.  Had 3 resume's by supper time.  A couple are actually good possibilities.

Yep, he's one of the preachers that have sent a resume.  Would you believe he has "Dr." in front of his name?  Oh, and doing a little searching it appears the beard is normal for him.

I know, not farm stuff, but things that have to be done.

Friday it hit me we had never finished the pump house at Mom's.  We hadn't gotten the rest of the insulation installed or put the thermostat controlled heater in.  So Friday afternoon Aman and I did that.  Next week we hope to make real progress.

Back to it

Well, I guess it is time to get back to work.  We have basically been shut down for the last 10 days or so. Between Christmas and family and going to the mountains

for Jill's wedding (see http://walnutprairie.blogspot.com/) the farm has pretty much had to survive without us.

I came out to the office to get things going again and found the monitor for the business computer wouldn't start up.  I guess it thought we abandoned it.  This is the longest it has been unpowered since we started using it.  No screen display, no indicator light, nothing.  So I dragged up an old CRT tube monitor out of the basement, plugged it in, and it worked.

It wasn't quite as simple as it sounds.  If you've seen my desk recently the only reason there were clear spots was because the piles got so tall they slid off in the floor. So I had to find a place for a CRT footprint on a flat screen desk.

In the process I decided it was time to clear out my card file with phone numbers and passwords in it.  I've freed up a lot of space. I've been tossing cards with contact info from when I sold copiers and cell phones!  I don't thik I need the contact numbers, account info, and part number for a Motorola T400 cell phone hang up cup.

And there is info I won't need anymore.  Hotel info for Johnson City, a card with Milligan numbers including after hours security, Jill's advisor, contact names, etc.

It is amazing how may web sites I have login and passwords for that do not exist now! And businesses as well.  I just tossed a couple for businesses that are gone.

I need to spend a week at the desk catching up on last week ... and looking out the window and at the thermometer I may just do that!